The Motorola MPx200 Smartphone 2002

The Motorola MPx200 is the first GSM/GPRS smartphone based on the
Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2002 platform available in the
United States. Generally speaking, the dual-mode (1800/1900) phone is
available SIM-locked for service from AT&T Wireless (although you
can probably purchase it SIM-unlocked from various retailers). Its
list price is $299. However, its price can drop to zero ($0) with
rebates and new service activation.

Smartphone or PDA?

The first question that many people ask when looking at a Microsoft
Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Linux-based smartphone is: "Can it replace
my Personal Digital Assistant (Linux, Palm, or Pocket PC)?" I
believe that you can answer this for yourself by asking a set of
questions that are nearly the same questions you would ask when
considering migrating from a notebook PC to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA):

Are the applications you use on your PDA available for your smartphone?

Do you perform a lot of input tasks like entering contacts, calendar
events, notes, and database entries? If so, does the smartphone
have an external or thumb keyboard accessory available (or an integrated
folding keyboard, like the Nokia 6800)? If not, do you find the smartphone's
predictive input technology (such as T9) acceptable as your primary
means of input?

Is the smartphone's screen size and font size large enough for
sustained viewing work?

Does the smartphone provide enough storage for the work and personal
files you need to have with you?

For some people, the answer may be indeterminate, and the solution
is to adopt a two-device, best-of-breed solution. You can read my
review of the
Sony Ericsson T610 Camera Phone
for one example of this compromise solution.

First Impressions: The MPx200 is a Phone First

When you think of mobile phones, Microsoft is probably not yet
among the first companies you think of. However, Motorola is probably
on that list. Motorola has a long history of designing and building
mobile phones, and the MPx200 reflects this history. Motorola took
Microsoft's already phone-centric Smartphone reference design and
created a truly “mobile-phone-first” product. The MPx200
is a wireless phone designed for one-handed operation that also
has other advanced information management features. This
contrasts with Microsoft's earlier Pocket PC Phone Edition, which is
primarily an information manager with wireless phone features that
requires two hands (and a stylus) to operate.

You can see in Figure 1 that the soapbar-shaped, flip-cover MPx200
is small (3.5 inches long) and when closed, can easily and comfortably be stored in a
pants pocket, belt holster, purse, or gadget bag.

Figure 1. Motorola MPx200 Smartphone 2002

The first thing you notice when you open the phone is the large,
bright TFT screen (Figure 2). The screen is reasonably easy to see and
read, even in bright sunlight. The only readability problem you might
find is when reading small fonts on web pages in bright sunlight.
The next thing that draws your attention is the
bright blue button at the center of the MPx200's navigation pad. This
Action button can be used to select options after maneuvering the
four-way navigation rose through horizontal and vertical menus. The
left and right Soft buttons are assigned the functions displayed on
the bottom of the window.

Figure 2. Motorola MPx200 Smartphone 2002

The green Talk (off hook) key takes you to a call history screen.
The red End (on hook) key terminates a call. The Home key takes you
back to the initial home window (see Figure 3) from wherever you are at
the moment. The Back key goes back to the previous window when
navigating through multiple option layers. It also serves as a
backspace key when entering text.

Figure 3. Motorola MPx200 Start Screen

If you do not look at the screen, the
MPx200 does what a mobile phone should do: offer no surprises. If you
hear it ringing, you flip the phone open and start talking. If you
are at the Home screen or press the talk button, you start tapping
the keypad to make a phone call. You can press the End key or simply
close the cover to end a call.

The MPx200 speaker has good volume. I
made a call while standing near a live band in a business shopping
center and was able to hear the person speaking to me clearly. And
the person on the other end said my voice was clear, even though I do
not think I was making an effort to speak extra loudly with the live
band playing on. Interestingly enough, I found the speakerphone
volume to be a bit low, but usable.

A Phone That Does Windows

The big difference between the MPx200
and other smartphones available in the United States is that it is
based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2002 platform. You
can see in Figure 4 that it displays a program list with some icons
and application names that are the same as what you see on a Microsoft-Windows-based desktop or notebook PC.

Figure 4. Motorola MPx200 program menu

The mobile phone, of course, is very different from a desktop PC
or PDA. It is, in a way, a throwback to the early days of user
interface design. You can select an application by scrolling up and
down the screen using the navigation keypad and then pressing the
Action key. However, it is far faster to just press the keypad digit
associated with each program on the menu to launch an application.

The real Microsoft Windows and phone synergy lies in the
integration of Microsoft Outlook Contacts with the dialer.
Conventional mobile phones often only store a maximum of several
hundred phone numbers; Pocket Outlook Contacts does not have this
limit. I synchronized my entire desktop Microsoft Outlook 2003
Contacts list of about 600 contacts to the MPx200. Moreover, many
contacts had several numbers, street addresses, email addresses, and
notes associated with them. All of this information was available on
the MPx200 after synchronization. Note that Microsoft ActiveSync
does not synchronize custom fields in a Contact record to the Pocket
PC or Smartphone.

You can see the power of the integration of Pocket Outlook
Contacts with the phone dialer when you start dialing a number. The
integrated software begins pattern matching against known telephone
numbers, first names, and last names. For example, if the first three
digits pressed are 764, both phone numbers beginning with 764, as well
as names like Smith and Sohn (that happen to be in my Contacts list),
are displayed on the screen.

In addition to integrated phone features, the MPx200 also
delivers all of the other Microsoft Smartphone 2002 features. The
availability of Internet Explorer means that you are not limited to
WAP sites. You can view nearly any web site. However, because of the
small screen size and the analog-modem-like GPRS data throughput, I
recommend you try to keep most of browsing activities focused on
sites formatted for PDAs. Figure 5 shows Media Player playing a
video file originally created for use on a Pocket PC.

Issues and Missing Features

The MPx200 is a fine wireless phone; however, nothing is perfect.
Here are a few issues and what I consider to be missing features I noted
in the time I had it on loan.

No integrated camera. In the past year or two, we consumers
have become conditioned to expect an integrated camera in high-end
phones. There is a SD Camera card listed on the
Motorola MPx200 United Kingdom accessories page (but not for
the United States). However, I have found that add-on cameras are
never as convenient as a camera built into the phone itself.

No Bluetooth. However, the phone can communicate with other
devices using a USB cable or infrared (IrDA).

Pocket Inbox can only work with one POP3 or IMAP4 email service.
This limit increases to eight services with Microsoft Smartphone 2003.

No thumb keyboard or folding full keyboard. This, in my
opinion, greatly reduces the practicality of entering information.

Short battery life. The MPx200 is rated by the manufacturer
for 70 hours standby and 3.4 hours of talk time. However, my unscientific
informal test had the battery fail after 22 hours and 30 minutes
with minimal use. I made about four or five short (one minute or less) phone
calls and a brief web browsing session (perhaps five minutes) during
that period. This, fortunately, has an easy workaround: purchase
a spare battery.

A calendar event alarm only has a dismiss and five-minute snooze
options. There are times when you may want other snooze periods
(10 minutes, one hour, etc.).

A Closer Look at the MPx200

Figure 6 shows you how small the MPx200 is compared to two other
GSM phones, the Pocket PC Phone Edition and Samsung R225M. It is easy
to understand how the folding flip-cover, antenna-less design makes
transporting the phone easier and more comfortable. The flip-cover
design also eliminates the possibility of accidentally pressing
keypad keys.

Figure 6. Pocket PC Phone Edition, Motorola MPx200, Samsung R225M

Figures 7 and 8 shows you the left and
right sides of the MPx200. The reasonably easy-to-find 256MB SD cards
(larger capacities are available) means that you can easily carry
document, music, and video files right in the phone.

Figure 7. Motorola MPx200 SD/MMC card slot
on right side. The headphone jack is seen covered to the left of
the SD/MMC card slot in this photo.

Figure 8. Motorola MPx200 left side. The
black jog dial (top) chiefly serves as a volume control. It is
also a record button for the sound recorder. During an incoming
call, it can be used to mute the ring (press once) or ignore the
call (press twice). The small silver button (bottom) is the
on/off button. It also provides profile options, if depressed and
released quickly. The infrared transceiver lens is right below
the power button.

Figure 9 shows you the MPx200's exposed
back. The GSM SIM card lies under the battery, secured by a small
metal clip. Although the MPx200 battery life is a bit disappointing
compared to other GSM mobile phones I have tested, there are several
simple workarounds. The battery is very easy to remove and insert.
So carrying a spare battery would insure that you have access to
your phone when needed.

Figure 9. Motorola MPx200 back with battery removed

Additional Ring Tones, Theme Screens, and Software

The AT&T Wireless
StartWindowsMobile.com
site provides an over-the-air service for obtaining ring tones, theme
screens, and software. You can also configure your email and Pocket
Internet Explorer favorites from this site.

Developer Information

The Motorola MPx200 is based on the Microsoft Smartphone 2002
platform, which, in turn, is built on top of the older Windows CE 3.0.
The current generation of Pocket PC 2003 devices (see my article
"
Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Software for Pocket PC 2003
")
and the next-generation Smartphone 2003 devices are based on Windows CE.Net 4.2. The Microsoft .NET
Compact Framework 1.0 SP2 Redistributable package does not support the
Smartphone 2002 (it does support the Pocket PC 2000 and 2002, which are also
based on Windows CE 3.0). This means that you cannot use the .NET Compact Framework to develop
applications for the MPx200 and other mobile phones based on
Smartphone 2002. On a positive note, however, it also means that you
can develop software using freely available tools from Microsoft:

The MPx200 is an application-unlocked device. This means that you
should be able to develop applications for it without any special
permissions. The exception to this rule may occur when you need to
work with privileged APIs. You can find the Smartphone application
security settings matrix on the
Microsoft Mobile2Market Frequently Asked Questions page.

You can find information related to developing software for
Microsoft Smartphone 2002 on the sites listed below:

The availability of Pocket Internet Explorer to quickly browse
PDA-formatted and conventional websites.

Tips & Hints

Here are a few helpful tips for MPx200 users.

Pressing the power button then
quickly releasing it brings up a Quick List that lets you
quickly change operational profiles, including Airplane Mode (which turns
off wireless phone radio while letting you use the other features).
It also lets you set key lock or device lock. You can also access
this menu from the default Start Screen by scrolling down to the
last line labeled Profile:Normal and pressing the blue Action
button.

Press and hold the Call Key (the key
with the green phone receiver icon) to turn on the speakerphone.

You can answer an incoming
phone call by just opening the flip phone. You also have the
option to turn this feature off.

The Jog Dial serves as a volume
control. It works with the cover closed or open.

Press the Jog Dial straight in
(this is a bit tricky) to bring up the voice recorder. The
flip cover must be open to give you access to the left soft button
to actually start an audio recording.

Both full-screen and pop-up menus
are wrap-around menus. The default menu selection is the
option at the top of the list. However, you can reach the last
(bottom) menu item by pressing the navigation control up with a
single click instead of using multiple clicks down.

You can enter punctuation and
other symbols -- underscore (_), for example -- by pressing and
holding the # key until a Symbol Menu appears.

You can copy your Internet
Explorer Favorites entries from your desktop/notebook PC or
Pocket PC to the MPx200. Pocket Internet Explorer can use these
shortcuts as is.

Soft Reset: Press and hold
the blue Action Key and the Power Button at the same time for a few
seconds until you see the Smartphone 2002 initial screen.

Hard Reset: Keep pressing and holding the blue Action Key
and Power Button past the Smartphone 2002 screen. You will see a
Master Reset screen asking if you want to perform a hard reset. Note
that performing a hard reset will erase applications such as the Task
Manager and File Manager provided by Motorola. You will need to
reinstall these Motorola-provided applications from the CD-ROM disc
that is bundled with the MPx200.

Where to Find More Information About the Motorola MPx200

Motorola MPx200 page This site provides information on using
the MPx200 as a wireless modem for a notebook PC or PDA.

Todd Ogasawara
is the editor of MobileAppsToday.com. He has been
named a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in the Mobile Devices category for the past several years. You can find his personal website focusing on Mobile Device Technology at www.mobileviews.com.